Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How Far are Consumers willing to Travel to see a Lawyer?

Office location is a major deciding factor for consumers when selecting a lawyer. 37% of consumers selected "Location" as one of the three most important factors in our previous poll. To gain further insight, we asked our consumers just how far they are willing to travel.

Based on a new Lawfirms.com user poll, 67% of 1,743 consumers who voted are willing to travel up to 1 hour to see a qualified lawyer. Interesting enough, 21% are willing to travel any distance, whereas only 12% are willing to travel between 1 to 2 hours.

Unless your local law practice is able to handle cases completely over the phone or has no direct competition, you should have a target geographic coverage radius of no more than 50~75 miles (roughly a 1 hr drive time in most metropolitan areas). This will increase the odds for a consumer to schedule a consult and actually show up at your office.